How To Remotely Control Android Phone From a Web Browser [Works with iPhone Also]

Let your phone rest while you work on your PC.

Remotely Control Android Phone from a PC or Laptop with this easy method. Smartphones has become an integral part of us. We use smartphones all the time and find it difficult to put it away even for a few minutes. We get the urge to check our phone notifications or sometimes we feel like the phone is ringing when its not.

For business people, it is important to keep their phones away to focus on their work and be more productive. But sometimes you will have to check your phone for some important notifications. In such cases it would be very easy if they could access their phone from the computer.

We are going to see how to remotely access an Android smartphone from a PC wirelessly without needing an Internet Connection. How cool is that? We don’t have to connect the phone to the computer using a USB cable. For those people who spend more time with their computers, this trick is really helpful. We can access all the files on our phones, transfer files from and to the phone, access the contacts and messages, and a lot more….

Remotely Control Android Phone from PC – Getting Started

We are going to remotely access android from a PC without the need of a USB Cable using WiFi. There is very little you have to do to get started with this.

First thing that needs to be done is Install an Application on your smartphone. The application we are going to use is called AirDroid. It is a FREE application which will enable us to control and access our phone remotely from a computer.

AirDroid – Remotely Control Android Phone from Computer

AirDroid is an application that will allow us to remotely access our smartphone from a computer. The application can be used to access and transfer files from and to the phone, read and reply to messages on the phone, receive notifications of your phone on a computer and many more.

It is available for both Android and iOS devices. The procedure is almost the same in both platforms.

The application comes with two components. The Smartphone is having a companion application which communicates with either an application installed on your computer or directly to a web interface. We will be seeing all the features of the application and also see how to access them. Just Download the suitable application for your phone and computer(not mandatory to install the desktop application).

Download AirDroid for SmartPhone

Download AirDroid Computer Client

Once you have downloaded the application and Installed it on your phone, Sign Up for a FREE account. You can use your Google account or Facebook account for easy sign up. Once that is done, you will be seeing the main AirDroid dashboard. Make sure you allow all permissions prompted by the application. If some permissions are not allowed, some features of the application might not work properly. Don’t worry about your security, AirDroid is a very reputed application that has been downloaded over 10 Million times on Google Play Store.

Control Android Phone From PC via WiFi on a Browser

Wait…what? Yes you heard it right. You can control your phone from a Web Browser remotely. This may sound crazy, but it is pretty simple with AirDroid. AirDroid application has a Web Interface were we will be able to access a smartphone through that interface.

Login Screen that you can see on the AirDroid Web Client.

The process is pretty simple. Follow the steps:

Open Airdroid on your smartphone and select AirDroid Web Option.

Make sure your phone and computer are connected to same WiFi connection.

Click on Accept on your phone when prompted ( as seen on image above) .

You will be automatically connected in Local Connection Mode.

Types of Connection in AirDroid

There are two types of wireless connection modes in AirDroid: Remote Connection Mode and Local Connection Mode. The Remote Connection Mode requires a working internet connection to be able to connect to the phone. This type of connection occurs when the phone and the computer are not connected to the same local network ( same WiFi Connection).

When the phone and the computer are connected to the same connection, it works in the Local Connection Mode which doesn’t require data to work. The connection is local and so it can provide better speeds while transferrings files. Always try to connect the phone and computer to the same network so that data connection is not used up.

Also Remote Connection Mode has a restricted Data usage for Free account (200 MB) which is quite low.

Connecting the AirDroid Desktop Client and the Phone

This is very easy. Once you have installed the application on the phone and the corresponding desktop client application on your computer, You basically have to login to both the application with the same account. That’s it.

You can identify whether you are using data or local connection mode.

If the phone and computer is connected to the same network, then automatically the Local Connection Mode will be used. This doesn’t consume any data. In the picture you can see that I have connected to my PC( BEAST) in Local Connection Mode.

Managing Files on Your Phone from Computer

You can manage the files on your phone from the desktop application which is available for both Windows and MacOS or through a web browser. We will be seeing how both the interfaces will look like.

Method 1: Access and Transfer Files from Phone Remotely from a Browser

You can easily view and manage all the files on your phone remotely using a web browser ( AirDroid Web Interface). The file manager has a common design which makes it easy to use. You can easily copy or move files, make folders or rename files very easily.

Files can be downloaded to the computer from your phone without any physical connection (USB Cable). You can also send files to your phone with ease. Files can be downloaded to the computer by Clicking on the File and then selecting the Download option from the Right-Click menu. For copying files to the phone from the computer, Click on the Upload File button and browse for the file on the computer.

The Interface is very easy to use and well organized without any clutter. When uploading files to the phone, you can see the status of the transaction on a popup window. You will be able to do almost all the basic functions that you would expect from a File Manager.

Similar to the web browser method, We can access the files and folders on the phone from the computer using the AirDroid desktop application. The application looks similar to the web interface. You can do all the operations using the desktop file manager also. It will be showing both the Internal and SD Card Storage on your phone.

You can access the file manager from the left pane.

You can download the files from the phone to your computer and also copy files from PC to the phone very easily. It supports drag and drop, meaning you can simply drag the file or folder to transfer it.

Read and Reply to Messages Remotely

You can read and reply to messages on your phone remotely using AirDroid. This can be done on both the web interface as well as using the desktop client.

Accessing Messages from Web Browser

Messages on your phone can be accessed from a Web browser. You can simply click on the Messages icon from the AirDroid desktop. Similar to the file manager, we have a neat looking messages manager were we can read and reply to messages. Recently Google Launched Messages for Web which allowed users to send messages from a computer like we can do using WhatsApp Web.

Accessing Messages using AirDroid Desktop Client

View and Save Images /Videos on Phone Remotely from a Browser

AirDroid Web Interface gives you a simple Photos Manager application were you can view and transfer images easily. Click on the Photos icon from the desktop to access the images on your phone.

You can easily transfer images to your phone by Clicking on the Upload File Button or by dragging and dropping the files. It is very easy to see and select images easily when connected to AirDroid. Large thumbnails makes it easy to find specific photos on your phone.

Stream Videos on Computer without Copying it from Phone

Another good advantage of AirDroid is that we can stream movies or videos that are on the phone without the need for copying it to the computer. You can simple go the Videos section to browse the videos on the phone and Click on it to watch it. There is no need to manually copy the file to the computer and then play the file.

Here are few other things you can do with AirDroid

Apart from the above mentioned things, you can do a lot of cool stuff with AirDroid. Some of these features are just cool but not that useful when it comes to remote control. Some of the added features that you get are:

Access the Phone’s camera from your computer. Lets you capture images using the phone’s back or front cameras. You can get a live feed from the phones camera on your pc wirelessly using the AirDroid desktop Client.

You can use the keyboard of your computer to type on your phone. This sounds super cool, but i didn’t find it that useful. Personally I don’t see myself using this feature.

View and Record phone screen without the need of Rooting the phone. Now this is a feature I’m interested in. It very helpful. There are tons of applications for recording your phone screen, many of them are having a lot of problems or needs root access for proper working. With AirDroid you can record or take screenshots of your phone from the computer itself. For those who do a lot of blogging related to phones, it’s always easier to get the file to the computer itself compared to transferring files from phone.

Using the Apps Manager, you can easily Download the application apk files to computer as backup.

Stream Movies and Videos that are in your Phone on your computer without actually having to copy it.

Access your phone from PC

If you don’t mind installing a software to control your phone from PC, then here are some applications that you should be checking out. In the section above we have discussed about How to Control Android or iPhone from a web browser without having to install and software on the PC. AirDroid is a great piece of technology that is really good at what it is supposed to do.

PushBullet

It is a very useful application for those who really wants to get their phone notification on your pc. If you haven’t already heard about PushBullet, you are late to the party. PushBullet has a Desktop application and the companion mobile phone application.

You can stay connected with your phone the whole time if you have setup Pushbullet. You can easily read and reply to SMS messages or even chats from instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Kik, Facebook Messenger etc.

Another great feature is that you can quickly share links or text across you devices. Links can be pushed to the PC or vice versa. So if you find something interesting on your phone, and wants to open it on your system, you can just push it using PushBullet. You can also share files within devices with ease.

Apart from normal Messenger notifications, you also get all the phone notifications like call notifications, app notifications etc.All notifications and SMS are encrypted so you don’t have to worry about security.

Pushbullet provides Chrome extensions as well which can be good for those who doesn’t want to install one more application on your system.

TeamViewer for Remote Control

TeamViewer for Remote Control is an application well from one of the pioneers of remote control Team Viewer. It allows you to control other devices from your phone. With Team Viewer for Remote Control enable you to control your PC from your Phone and also control other phones as well.

Final Thoughts

If you are the kind of person who spends most of your time on a computer and want to have your phone with you all the time, then this is for you guys. Using the method you could easily access your phone from your computer remotely without needing any physical connection. You can work more productively as you don’t have to look into your phone each time your receive a notification or message.

Also this trick can be used to transfer files from your phone to computer or vice versa if you don’t have a USB cable with you. It is very easy to manage files from a web browser remotely.

Loves anything tech. Loves writing about tech and share the things he knows to the world. Interests include Gaming, Web Designing and is a die hard Pop Music Fan. Fav include Anne Marie, Ed Sheeran. Team #Android.

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